Nikki Haley has been the subject of posts on this blog going back to the middle of the last decade. Now Politico has the first of what are probably going to be many similar stories leading up to the 2012 South Carolina primary, Nikki Haley muscles up for 2012:
With noted smackdowns of two top GOP 2012 contenders, a high-profile presence at the May 5 Fox News debate and a schedule heavy with cable news show appearances, the first-term Republican governor is signaling her intent to use South Carolina’s key early presidential primary to claim a place on the national stage.
Haley’s recent muscle-flexing came at the expense of Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney, both of whom are still licking their wounds after her frank–and non-constructive–criticism of them.
Dream nomination fight for 2016
Piyush Jindal + Herman Cain vs. Allen West + Nimrata Haley
The tories have quite successfully used cats’ paws in Canada this time by splitting the Sikh-Canadian vote all across the land by catering to the basest instincts within the community. Ruby Dhalla got poleaxed because of her support for gay rights, Ujjal Dosanjh for liberal welfare policies. But the Canadian Tories are more of the old National Review (or some such flim-flam like Oakshotteian or Burkean) conservatives, unlike here in the US where the new challengers in the GOP are populist rabble rousers backed by extreme reactionary outfits like American Legislative Exchange. Newt and Mitt are just finding out that greasy and unprincipled as they are there is a new rookie class that willing to go much further. It’s a furious race to the bottom. John Kasich these days simply reads out speeches written for him by the local Chamber of Commerce. Walker of Wisc. we know is in the employ of the Kochs. Paul Ryan as I had rightly predicted is a private health insurance company stooge (>$600k since he began his political career). But Jindal and Haley may yet triumph over the Paul Ryans and Patrick Murphys, because while the latter have only forsaken their principles (or whatever little they had to start with) the former two flushed down their heritage without a thought.